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About W6OP

I originally got my novice license in 1979 as WA6YUL while I was in the Navy on Whidbey Island, Washington. I upgraded to Technician shortly after that and then was in and out of Ham radio for many years. Finally I decided to get back in full time and upgraded to General and then to Extra class in 2005. I also became more active on HF, particularly dxing. I currently have over 250 countries confirmed and my DXCC on all except 160 and 6 meters. I work phone, cw, ft8 and rtty. I also spend a lot of time on 6 meters and have more than 200 grids (unconfirmed).

Currently I am using a Flex Radio 6500. Additionally I have a THP HL-1.5K solid state amplifier and the matching THP antenna tuner.

My antennas consist of a Steppir BigIR vertical for 80 through 10 meters. Do to new landscaping several of my antennas have been decommissioned. Phased verticals on 20 meters aligned east/west, a 17 meter vertical delta array (can be reconfigured for 15 meters) and stacked loops for 6 meters with the lowest at 30 feet. I recently built a 10 meter moxon but that will have to stay below 15 feet because of HOA restrictions. However, it works pretty good even at that low height. I also have a 160 meter vertical, 30 feet tall. It is base and top loaded and has a capacity hat. I have it on a tiltover mount and only put it up at night. I can easily lengthen or shorten the top section to move up and down the band.

As I develop this site I plan on providing details on building my arrays and then modifying the moxon for 12 meters. Everything is built so they can be easily removed for lawn mowing and BBQ’s and parties. I’ll also add a section for an online log so anyone can check if they had a QSO with me.